Massachusetts Mall Time Capsule Predicts Life in 2022

My sister-in-law, Elise Warecki, had a brush with her past yesterday.

When she was a junior at Framingham High School in 1994, she won a contest to have her essay included in a time capsule that was to be sealed off at the Natick Mall.  She wrote the essay as an English assignment. Her teacher liked it so much that she entered it into the contest. The mall was going through some renovations and decided to take advantage of the construction and collect items for a time capsule.

The items ranged from a 1994 TV Guide to a Natick Mall shopping bag to a menu from Legal Sea Foods.  I can imagine there is probably a sizable number of people in the Fun 107 audience that have never seen a TV Guide, and I'd love to pay the 1994 price for a Legal Sea Foods lobster roll. Their half-pound lobster roll is selling for $39 at the Cranston location today.

When the time capsule was sealed on April 26, 1994, the predetermined date to have it reopened was Oct. 12, 2022.

Elise's essay offered predictions about what life would be like in the year 2022.

She remembers being there when the capsule was buried.

"The day they sealed the capsule I remember thinking that I'd be so old when they opened it in 2022," Warecki said. "I've been anticipating this for so long. Every time I've been to the Natick Mall I'd see the plaque."

Admittedly, some of her predictions were more accurate than others.

Warecki, whose last name was Bloomfield at the time, seemed to be very concerned about the ozone layer. She predicted that the sun would be so strong in the year 2022 that going outside without sunscreen would be dangerous. Avoiding the sun would be so important that we'd have to get sun exposure in a more controlled way with special lamps, she wrote.

Her prediction about interactive video games and computers "reciting the next chapter of our favorite classic novel" were on the money.

Here is Warecki's winning essay in full:

Hazy Late-Day

Elise Bloomfield, Grade 11, Framingham High School

Hazy late-day sunlight struggles to show its face through the thick, gray smog.  Another normal day is slowly becoming a typical night--that is a typical night of the year 2022.

 

Scurrying home from our jobs, we must carefully apply our sun block for even the late-day sun has been proven to be hazardous. Jumping into our new-age, convenient solar-powered vehicles, we arrive home faster than ever. Dinner is just minutes away. However, in our hurry to get dinner on the table, we must not forget to calculate carefully our sodium, cholesterol intake.

 

After dinner, it's time for recreation. We may try a new video interactive game or we might listen to our computer recite the next chapter of our favorite classic novel. Or, if we choose to go out, we might take a short trip to Australia to see a friend who lives only a few-thousand miles away.

 

Whatever we do, we're sure to have a fine time unwinding and leaving our day-time worries behind.

 

When we return to our dark underground or highrise homes, we flip on our solar-emitting lights. Since we are no longer supposed to spend longer periods of time outside due to ultraviolet rays, we must get the nutrients the sun used to give us while we sleep. These lights have proven to make us healthier, happier people during the daytime.

 

We are exhausted and ready for a night of re-energizing for another long day. We flip on our dream recorders, which often help us work through our problems by showing what is truly troubling us. Then we lay down, and the gentle solar light lulls us to sleep.